Here are details of the email complaint i made to direct holidays on the 3rd July.... I am so frustrated regarding this matter and getting fobbed off and passed pillar to post with no action ! I need help and advice urgently !!
Sir / Madam
I am contacting you regarding booking xyz123 and the very poor service i have received which left me overseas with no money and my direct debits getting rejected and returned.
I booked the above holiday on June 1st prior to us going on holiday to Sharm el sheikh (4th June) on another direct holiday. I had checked the deposit box on the online booking, however i was debited with the full amount in excess of £2000. I immediately called my Bank who advised that i must call Direct Holidays. I spoke with H****** at the call centre in Falkirk who during the course of the day was quite helpful after many calls to H******* and with my Bank a fax was sent from Direct Holidays with all the details required for the money to be returned into my account, this took about 8 hours of my time to try and sort out!
I was quite wary as my bank also told me that unscrupulous goods and service providers sometimes go back and take the money as they still have an active authorisation ode to get the funds released. H***** assured me that there were enough notes on the system for this not to happen an she also spoke to a colleague who said it would be impossible to happen. H******* arranged to call me when i returned from Egypt on 19th June to take a deposit payment from me for my booking. I left for Egypt on the 4th June quite confident that i would have funds available in my account for my direct debits and for cash when on holiday.
On the 7th June Direct Holidays debited my account again the sum of £2038.00 leaving my account penniless for any direct debits and leaving me in Egypt with no money available for trips and restaurants we had planned to visit (luckily we were all incl).
20th June
On my return from Egypt i went to my bank, who advised me that my current bank charges were £70.00 and i had to speak with an adviser to get my Overdraft facility raised from 450 to 1500 to stop any future charges.
"Mikey" at direct holidays (accounts dept) advised me that it was not their fault that the money got taken from my account and that the bank should have stopped the authorisation code. However he would arrange for the money to be returned less the amount for the deposit an that it would take a few days to be received into my bank.
I checked with my bank and a peronal friend who is a banking supervisor and both were quite clear that the bank can not stop authorisation codes as they do not know if i the customer have received the goods or services. Its upto the provider in this case Direct Holidays not to take the funds.
This has caused me an unbelievable amount of stress and worry. Also being left over 2000 miles away in Egypt with no money available too me !!! I missed out on trips to Cairo and Tiran Island as i had no means to pay for them due to Direct Holidays actions. To come home and to phone all my direct debits and to explain why they never received their monies, very embarrassing !!
Finally i went online to pay some money toward my holiday to find that my account balance was at 3900 pounds or so... my total booking was for only £2018 !!!!!! Unbelievable !!!!! yet another call made to sort this out on June 25th and it still not sorted.
At the very least i want a full apology over this whole affair, my bank charges to be paid by Direct Holidays (i can send details once the bank send me the breakdown. But it totals at least £70.00) and compensation for leaving me penniless in Egypt for near 2 weeks and for all the grief it has caused with my bank and debitors.
Sorry to hear of your problems. First please do not rely on the email. Always when complaining it should be in writing sent recorded delivery. You can track this online and confirm that they have received it. I I was in your position I would still do this and state that it is a confirmation of the email. The problem with emails is that sometimes they do not arrive. The recipients system may delete them as S P A M - a failure on their system can cause them to be lost. You name it here on HT we have heard many tales about them not being taken note of. These companies may get several thousand emails in a day so you can understand where I am coming from.
Now you do not want an apology - that is just words. You should be asking for them to reimburse ALL bank charges. reimbursement of your telephone costs. You should also ask for compensation for the way this impacted on your holiday enjoyment. You should insist that they contact the credit reference agencies to ensure that no adverse comments are made against you. Funny how people never think about that but a missed payment can get onto your credit history and cause problems in the future. Remember that missed payments do get recorded no matter what the reason. I had problems with an interest free period many years ago. They had recorded a different date on their documents to the one they had put on mine. One of my customers was a senior accounts manager and he sorted it out but it did not stop it being recorded.
Please keep us posted as we may be able to give you further advice.
fwh
Now you do not want an apology - that is just words. You should be asking for them to reimburse ALL bank charges. reimbursement of your telephone costs. You should also ask for compensation for the way this impacted on your holiday enjoyment. You should insist that they contact the credit reference agencies to ensure that no adverse comments are made against you. Funny how people never think about that but a missed payment can get onto your credit history and cause problems in the future. Remember that missed payments do get recorded no matter what the reason. I had problems with an interest free period many years ago. They had recorded a different date on their documents to the one they had put on mine. One of my customers was a senior accounts manager and he sorted it out but it did not stop it being recorded.
Please keep us posted as we may be able to give you further advice.
fwh
Thanks very much for your reply... i didnt even think of my credit scoring being possibly affected !! I received confirmation that my email was received and was being dealt with. I was under the impression that ABTAs code of conduct ensured that i should have received a reply within 28 days (thomas cook said that was just a guideline). I have been promised a resolution by today.. so hopefully they will refund my charges and offer something in compensation. Thanks
Partner has called them today...refused to speak to her regarding resolving the matter and said it would be resolved by email today !!!
If you were the lead name on the booking they will only discuss the situation with you.
Let us know how things go
Let us know how things go
Glynis HT Admin wrote:If you were the lead name on the booking they will only discuss the situation with you.
Let us know how things go :tup
My partner is the lead name however authorisation has been given to speak to either of us.
partner just called, they have offered £225 in holiday vouchers.. not sure if i can redeem them on the holiday i have booked or if they have to be used against another holiday at full list price (which means they would be worthless to me). Will update when i get home and read the conditions
Vouchers are only any good if you are going to book another holiday with them. After the current fiasco I would need some convincing that they would not make the same mistake again. It is your decision.
But that is not important at this time as the holiday has been and gone. Going back to my previous post you need something positive doing that ensures you credit history is not damaged. The fact that you have contacted the people who did not get paid is irrelevant. Whilst they may be happy to excuse you their computer systems are not as understanding and may already have placed the "black mark" on your file. You can use Credit Expert to check on this. They offer a free trial - so I would take advantage of that to check. If there is a note on your file then it needs removing. Only Direct Holidays can do that by contacting whoever has put it on and explain it is their error that has caused the problem and get it removed.
We had problems with my wife's M&S card when they wrote to her about late payment. She always pays on the 1st or 2nd of the month instore. The problem was the store did not empty the box every day. They have now changed things to ensure it is.
Please do not email your reply/concern or telephone them but put it in writing as I said before.
fwh
But that is not important at this time as the holiday has been and gone. Going back to my previous post you need something positive doing that ensures you credit history is not damaged. The fact that you have contacted the people who did not get paid is irrelevant. Whilst they may be happy to excuse you their computer systems are not as understanding and may already have placed the "black mark" on your file. You can use Credit Expert to check on this. They offer a free trial - so I would take advantage of that to check. If there is a note on your file then it needs removing. Only Direct Holidays can do that by contacting whoever has put it on and explain it is their error that has caused the problem and get it removed.
We had problems with my wife's M&S card when they wrote to her about late payment. She always pays on the 1st or 2nd of the month instore. The problem was the store did not empty the box every day. They have now changed things to ensure it is.
Please do not email your reply/concern or telephone them but put it in writing as I said before.
fwh
Direct Holidays are going to credit our next booking with £225 pounds, i feel that is reasonable on their part. I will also receive my bank charges on a seperate claim. So all in all dig your heels in harass them and you may get somewhere !!!
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